Door-operating mechanism for gondola cars.



No. 893,618. PATENTED JULY 21, 1908. 3,1. nouns.

DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM FOR GONDOLA CARS. APPLICATION FILED APB. 24.1905.

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APPLICATION FILED APR. 24.1905.

2 SHBETSSHEET Z.

Q C) CD ETHAN I. DODDS, OF PULLMAN, ILLINOI OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A

ASSIGNOR TO THE PULLMAN COMPANY,

CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

-DOOB-OPERATING MECHANISM FOR GONDOLA CABS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 21, 1908.

Application filed April 24, 1905. Serial No. 257,150.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ETHAN I. DoDDs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fullman, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Door-Operating Mech anisms for Gondola Cars, of which the follow ing is a specification.

My invention relates to metal car constructions, more particularly cars of that type wherein the bottoms are constituted by a series of floor sections in the form of hinged doors that may be dropped by means of door-operating mechanism to discharge the load beneath or to the sides of the car and subsequently raised to and held in normally closed position.

Hitherto various devices have been pro posed and employed for permitting the dropping of the doors and effecting their return to closed position subsequent to the discharge of the load.

My present invention has for its object to provide a simple, inexpensive, and easily manipulated door-operating mechanism for cars of this type; and to these ends it consists of a mechanism chiefly characterized by the provision of a shaft extending longitudinally of each side of the car and provided with offset or cranked portions engaging the under sides of the doors, preferably in an anti-friction manner, as by means of rollers; such shaft, in the preferred form of the invention, being also provided with mechanism whereby it may move bodily laterally in a direction transversely of the car-body or in wardly and outwardly of the door, thereby securing a longer and more effective are of travel to the door-engaging parts.

In the accompanying drawing I have shown so much of a steel gondola car and its door-operating mechanism as is essential to the disclosure and clear understanding of my invention; and referring thereto,

Figure 1 is a crosssectional view of a carbody equipped with my improved dooroperating mechanism; Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of an end portion of said car-body, partly broken out and in section for the sake of greater clearness; Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view through the door shaft operating mechanism; and Fig. 4 is a similar enlarged front elevational view of such mechanism.

Referring to the drawings,

1 may desigeither side a pivoted nate the twin center sills which, in cars of this type, usually accommodate the drawbar and coupler indicated at 2.

3 designates the side-plates and 4; the endplates of the car-body.

5 designates each of a series of doors suitably hinged at their inner edges to brackets 6 connected to the center sills, said doors unitedly constituting the discharging bottom of the car.

7 indicates the side stakes, and 8 the transverse beams of the under frame, commonly known as flying transoms extending be tween the center sills and the depending ends of the side stakes.

Referring now more particularly to the articular door-operating mechanism constituting the subject matter of the present invention, 9 designates a shaft disposed longitudinally of and beneath each side of the car bottom. Each shaft has integral offset or cranked portions 9 disposed between adjacent flying transoms and underlying the hinged doors. Said shaft has fast thereon a series of spur gears 10 that rest upon and operate over racks 11 formed on the upper faces of hangers 12 secured to the lower edges of the flying transoms 8. Each rack 11 is preferably formed by means of a series of perforations in the flange of the hanger 12, the metal between the perforations constituting the teeth. In a construction of this kind any coal or other lading which falls upon the rack 11 may drop through the perforations thereof or be forced through these perforations by means of the gear teeth as the gears travel over the racks. The offset portions or cranks 9' of the shaft are each provided with one or more rollers 13 that engage the under surface of the doors in an anti-friction manner. At either or both ends of the car the shaft may be provided with any suitable operating means, that herein shown consisting of the following.

14 designates a bar securely bolted to the outer face of the transverse end sill 15 and containing a dove-tailed channel 16. On said bar is slidably mounted by means of a dove-tailed tongue 1'7 engaging said channel a block 17 in which is journaled the end of a shaft 9. On the overhanging end of said shaft are keyed a pair of twin star wheels 18, between which, loosely mounted on the shaft, is an operating lever 19, carrying on dog 20 engaging the toothed peripheries of the star Wheels. Pivotally mounted on the block 17 above the inner star wheel 18 is a detent pawl 21, the nose of which also overlies the eriphery of said star wheel, said detent paw being normally maintained in engagement with the star wheel by a pivoted locking pawl 22.

In operation, assuming that the doors are in horizontal or closed position, as shown in Fig. 2 and at the right in Fig. 1, and that it is desired to discharge the load, this may be effected by first throwing locking dogs 20 around into engagement with the teeth of the star wheels lying beneath the line between the axes of the star wheels and dogs, then throwing back the locking withdrawing the detent pawl 21, and bearing down on the lever. This throws the contact points of the rollers 13 with the doors inside the vertical plane of the shaft 9, whereupon the weight of the doors and load effects the turning of the shaft. This causes the rollers 13 to travel inwardly toward the hinges of the doors, while at the same time,

7 doors to close through the engagement of the gears 10 and racks 11, the shaft itself travels bodily inwardly of the car bottom. This permits the doors to drop, the parts assuming substantially the relative positions shown at the left of Fig. 1, in which position the gears 10 have traveled to the other end of their supporting hangers 12. By stopping the movement of the shaft at any intermediate point in its travel by means of the operating handle or lever 19 and throwing the detent pawl 21 into engagement with star wheel 18, the load-discharging doors may be held in different adjusted ositions. To return the position the lever 19 is given a series of upward movements, which, through the dogs 20 cooperating upon the star wheels 19, rotates said star wheels, thus imparting a reverse or backward combined rotation and sidewise bodily movement to the shaft 9, which returns the doors to closed position and causes the mechanism to resume the relative positions of its parts as shown at the right in Fig. 1, it being understood that the detent pawl 2.1 holds the inner star wheel against backward rotation between successive upward thrusts of the operating lever 19.

From the foregoing it will be seen that by reason of the combined rotary and transverse bodily movement of the door-operating shafts, a wide sweep or arc of movement is afforded to the supporting rollers 13, thus permitting a wide opening of the doors and the full and free discharge of the load.

It is evident that variations and modifications in respect to details might be made in' the above-described mechanism by those skilled in the art without involving any departure from the principle of the invention and without sacrificing any of the advantages pawl 22 and,

thereof. Hence, I do not limit the invention to the particular mechanism herein disclosed except to the extent indicated in specific claims. I

This patent is intended to' embrace only so much of the disclosure made herein as is covered by the claims.

I claim:

1. In a railway dumping car, the combination of a car body, a hinged load-discharging door, a cranked shaft having an offset portion engaging the support for said shaft permitting it to have a bodily movement toward and from the hinge of said door, means for turning said shaft, and means compelling a bodily movement of said shaft to or from said hinge when said shaft is turned, substantially as described.

2. In a railway dumping car, the combination of a car body, a hinged load-discharging door, a cranked shaft having an offset portion engaging the under side of said door, a support for said shaft permitting it to have a bodily movement toward and from the hinge of said door, a gear on said shaft, a stationary rack with which said gear co-acts, and means for turning said shaft, the operation of said turning means causing a rotation of said shaft and also a bodily movement 'thereof, substantially as described.

3. A door-operating mechanism for dropbottom cars comprising a longitudinally extending shaft mounted beneath the hinged bottom and bodily movable laterally inwardly and outwardly of the sides of the car, said shaft having one or more offset portions engaging the under side of said hinged bottom, and means for turning said shaft, substantially as described.

4. The combination with a car-body havin a hinged bottom section, of a longitudina ly extending shaft disposed beneath the latter, said shaft having one or more offset portions engaging the under side of said bottom section, gears carried by said shaft,

racks disposed transversely of the bottom section engaging and supporting said gears, and means for turning said shaft, substantially as described.

5. The combination with a car-body having a hinged bottom section, of a longitudinally extending shaft disposed beneath the latter, said shaft having one or more offset portions engaging the under side of said bottom section, gears carried by said shaft, racks disposed transversely of the bottom section engaging and supporting said gears, each rack comprising a member having a series of perforations the material between the same constituting the teeth, and means for turning said shaft, substantially as described.

6. The combination with a car-body having a series of flying transoms and a series of hinged bottom sections disposed and operating between adjacent transoms, of a longitudinally extending shaft disposed beneath said transoms, said shaft having a series of cranked or offset portions engaging the under sides of said bottom sections, gears carried by said shaft, hangers secured to said transoms and formed with racks engaging and supporting said gears, and means for turning said shaft, substantially as de scribed. V

7. The combination with a car-body havm a 'hinged bottom section, of a longitudina ly extending shaft mounted beneath the hinged bottom and bodily movable laterally inwardly and outwardly of the sides of the car, said shaft having one or more offset portions engaging the under side of said hinged bottom, and a shaft-operating means com prising a transversely movable journal block in which the end of said shaft is rotatably mounted, and means for imparting a turning movement to said shaft, substantially as described.

8. The combination with a car-body havin a hinged bottom section, of a longitudinadly extending shaft mounted beneath the hinged bottom and bodily movable laterally inwardly and outwardly of the sides of the car, said shaft having one or more offset por tions engaging the under side of said hinged bottom, and a shaft-operating means comprising a transversely movable journal block in which the end of said shaft is rotatably mounted, a lever loosely mounted on said shaft, a ratchet fast on said shaft, a dog car ried by said lever engagin said ratchet, and a detent on said journal block, substantially as described.

9. The combination with a car-body havin a hinged bottom section, of a longitudina ly extending shaft mounted beneath the hinged bottom and bodily movable laterally inwardly and outwardly of the sides of the car, said shaft having one or more offset portions engaging the under side of said hinged bottom, and a shaft-operating means comprising a transversely movable journal block in which the end of said shaft is rotatably mounted, a lever loosely mounted on said shaft, a ratchet fast on said shaft, a dog carried by said lever engaging said ratchet, and a detent pawl pivotally mounted on said journal block and also engaging said ratchet, substantially as described.

10. In a dump car, the combination of a car frame, a dumping door mounted therein and movable to open and closed positions, a reciprocatory shaft for operating said door, means to operate said shaft, a block adapted to travel with said shaft, a star wheel on said shaft, and means mounted on said block cooperating with said star wheel to hold said shaft and thereby said door in different adjusted positions, substantially as described.

ETHAN I. DODDS. Witnesses:

SAMUEL N. POND, FREDERICK O. GooDwIN. 

